What

SONDER was a sold-out, eight-part immersive experience that brought 200 strangers together for a night of serendipity, connection, and wonder. Held at The Laundry, a gallery and community space in San Francisco, SONDER invited participants to question and reimagine their relationships to strangers through interactive and shared encounters with art, emotion, and memory. I led the design of the welcome, entrance, and closure moments of this experience, which hinged on the gifting of 200 letters written from strangers, to strangers – letters I collected from all over the world.

Why & Who

The word SONDER is defined in The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows as the moment of realization that complete strangers are living lives as rich and complex as your own. Inspired by this concept, a small group of creatives known as the ANYWHERE COLLECTIVE set out to build something to remedy the sense of deep loneliness and estrangement we were all feeling in an urban and fractured community. 

Emergent questions

• What does it mean to be connected to one another; what does it mean to be in relationship? 

• What emerges when you ask strangers to write letters to strangers? 

• How do you create the conditions for strangers to become friends?